reply to post by WarJohn
Will there ever be an end of the internet as we know it?
Yes.
When?
whenever they finally decide to take it down.
How can we stop it from happening?
We can't.
Seems pretty bleak right? Let me explain....
The "internet" as we know it, for most of us, is the web. The interconnected websites that span the globe, this one included.
That's not the internet, that's the web, the internet allows the web to function.
The internet is, quite literally, the network that allows all of this to take place. And guess what? That's a telecommunications network. And what
does that mean? It means the network that all of this runs on, well, "networks" are owned by a few corporations that could, tomorrow, decide to
just take it down and reinvent it.
If you want a hint of what's coming, what they have planned, find someone old enough to remember "compuserv" that's the goal.
Paid, tiered, internet access. you want youtube and facebook? that's package 1 for 70$ a month. Oh, you want fox news? that's in another
package.
And once that happens, which it will, net neutrality, you know, that cause we're all ignoring.... gets thrown out the window and sites like, oh, I
don't know, ATS and anything not run by the handful of communications companies that own the network, because impossible to run, and better yet,
impossible to get to.
The network can survive a nuclear attack, the routers can navigate traffic around dead zones.
But those routers and switches, trunk lines, continental bridge connections, all of it, is privately owned and no one has an inherent right to access
it.